Prosecutor: McKinnon unconscious when stabbed

After knocking out Geoffrey McKinnon with one punch on June 14, 2009, Daniel Gonzalez could have walked away.

Norman Miller/Daily News staff

After knocking out Geoffrey McKinnon with one punch on June 14, 2009, Daniel Gonzalez could have walked away.

Instead, Gonzalez murdered McKinnon, prosecutor Joseph Gentile said Thursday during the first day of testimony in Gonzalez’s first-degree murder trial in Middlesex Superior Court.

"He stands over Geoffrey McKinnon, takes a knife out of his waistband, a folding knife, and he stabs Geoffrey McKinnon not once, not twice, but three times," Gentile told the jury of nine men and seven women.

McKinnon, 22, and his girlfriend, Aubrey Riordan, were at their 307A Grant St. apartment late on June 13 when James Cowperthwaite and Gonzalez walked by. McKinnon, who knew Cowperthwaite well, and had previously met Gonzalez, invited them to come in for a while.

The pair left, and returned shortly later with a third man, Paul Silveira, along with a bottle or two of vodka, Gentile said.

"They’re all drinking, some of them are smoking marijuana, they’re listening to music," said Gentile. "There are no fights, no arguments, no particular tension between any of them."

Cowperthwaite was attracted to Riordan, and told Gonzalez to distract McKinnon so he could attempt a tryst.. Cowperthwaite went upstairs, and Riordan, concerned because her sister and her boyfriend were sleeping upstairs and all of her valuables were there, followed him up the stairs, the prosecutor said.

Around 4 a.m., when McKinnon tried to go upstairs, Gonzalez blocked his path. Gonzalez said McKinnon then punched him, while Silveira said McKinnon tried to push Gonzalez out of the way, and Gonzalez punched McKinnon, knocking him out.

After, stabbing McKinnon twice in the stomach and then slashing him across the face, Gonzalez ran upstairs "and yells to Jimmy and said, ‘we got to go. We got to go.’"

The three men left and Riordan discovered a bloodied McKinnon on the kitchen floor and called 911.

McKinnon was rushed to the hospital, but died in the operating room at 7:40 a.m., Gentile said.

Police tracked the three men to Cowperthwaite’s Elliot Street apartment. After questioning them, police arrested Gonzalez, who then tearfully admitted to what he had done.

"He said he knocked him out, and the next thing he remembers is standing over him with a bloody knife," Gentile said.

Gonzalez’s lawyer, Eduardo Masferrer, called it a "sad case," where everything that happened that night was fueled by alcohol, drugs and emotions.

"This isn’t a case of a big argument, or a fight," Masferrer said.

He also said there is no evidence of premeditation of "extreme atrocity and cruelty," which are the two standards for first-degree murder.

"Mr. Gonzalez is not guilty of first-degree murder," he said. "None of these things hold true."

Gonzalez, Masferrer said, has a history of mental illness, and the drugs and alcohol helped shape that night's events.

Gonzalez had no bad intentions that night and has no memory of what happened, the lawyer told jurors.

"He can’t remember the altercation," said Masferrer. "He certainly remembers the beginning, and he remembers the end. He does not remember the middle."

Framingham Police Officer Arthur Sistrand said when he went to the apartment at 4:15 a.m., he thought he was going to a medical emergency. He told the jury he did not realize it was a crime scene until he entered the home.

There, he saw McKinnon lying on the floor with blood on his face, while Riordan kneeled beside him, Sistrand said.

"She was on her knees," he said. "She was cradling his head and she was trying to get his attention. I could see her arms and hands were saturated with blood. He was semi-conscious, groaning, not responding to the questions I was asking him."

Officer Sean Riley, the on-call detective that day, showed jurors McKinnon's bloody shirt and the knife that authorities say was the murder weapon that Gonzalez had thrown into a nearby storm drain.

Today, the jury is scheduled to visit 307A Grant St. State Chemist Deanna Miller, who began testifying on Thursday, is scheduled to complete her testimony.

Gonzalez, 23, remains held without bail, charged with first-degree murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wickedlocal.com. For live trial updates, follow Norman Miller on Twitter at @Norman_MillerMW, #Gonzalezmurdertrial.